Summary

In Chapter 4, Jefferson's father, a captain, was at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, the location of the largest Negro hospital in the U.S. Negroes staffed and commanded the hospital, a rarity in World War II when most commanders were white. Jefferson's mother, Irma Jefferson wrote a letter to a friend, Deborah Raines, about her life there.

In Chapter 5, one of Jefferson's friends said Jefferson's family seemed wealthy. Jefferson posed the question to her mother and got a lecture about the rudeness of that question. Jefferson was a young girl during these events. About that same time, some other friends asked if she knew the janitor. (Jefferson did not specify, but the girls were apparently asking about the janitor at their school.) When Jefferson mentioned this to her mother, Irma Jefferson said that white people tend to think all Negroes know each other. Wally was...